EMAP COMMUNICATIONS TALKS TO STAFF ONLINE

Emap Communications, part of Emap plc, has over 200 products centred on B2B magazines, trade exhibitions, conferences and information products. Dr Ceri Thomas, Managing Director of TPMG (The Performance Management Group) looks at how a transition from paper-based employee surveys to electronic implementation has resulted in quicker and fuller feedback from employees and reduced costs by half.

Companies are becoming more aware of the link between employee satisfaction, customer service and business success. As a result the need for consistent and high levels of communication between an organisation and its staff has increased. With more and more companies recognising this link there is growing demand for tools which provide effective and efficient ways to gauge the workforce perception of the company, so that problems can be addressed before they escalate into more serious issues.

There are numerous ways that internal communication and staff dialogue can be instigated, including staff meetings, newsletters, employee committees and surveys. These methods can all provide individual benefits but such approaches can be both sporadic and time consuming, and in some cases are not thorough enough to provide an effective platform for improved communication and feedback to be achieved.

With the increased use of internet-based business solutions companies are looking at ways to utilise technology in areas that they had previously not imagined possible. For many companies, including Emap Communications, HR is one such area.

Emap Communications employs over 1200 people at eight sites in the UK. It has been working with TPMG, a performance management consultancy and software provider, to improve the internal dialogue between managers and staff employed at the company.

Previously Emap Communications used a combination of paper-based staff surveys, along with the corporate intranet to communicate with, and gain feedback from, its staff. Ken Smith, Training and Development Director at Emap Communications says, “Our previous method of conducting staff surveys was an administrative nightmare. Paper-based questionnaires were distributed to all staff at our UK sites on an annual basis and it usually took at least a month for all surveys to be completed and returned. This was before analysis could actually begin, which in itself was a very time consuming task.”

In order to gain more regular and relevant feedback from its staff, Emap Communications made the decision to implement a web-based HR solution. After an evaluation of the market place the TalkNow employee survey tool from TPMG was selected. It was found to be the most flexible and easy to use solution available, and it was also the most effective for Emap’s specific requirements.

Ken Smith comments, “In the past, electronic HR tools have been unsuccessful for us. However, with TalkNow we are now finding that asking staff to complete surveys online is much more successful than our old paper-based system. I think part of its success is due to the change in office culture and the fact that working on a PC is the norm for many employees. As a result, filling in surveys electronically is now the most natural way for them to provide us with valuable feedback.”

The TalkNow solution from TPMG provides flexible, fast and powerful surveying, as well as delivering considerable cost savings compared with traditional paper systems. TalkNow is able to compile statistical, graphical and textual results in seconds with results being instantly available and ready for analysis. As well as supporting different styles of questioning and the simultaneous dispatch of multiple questionnaires, the anonymity of individual respondents is also preserved. The results can then either be analysed on a stand alone basis or compared with historical surveys, in order to help build trend patterns and identify potential issues earlier. Results from different business units can also be compared using the TPMG solution.

Ken Smith has been impressed with the results since the implementation of the web-based feedback tool. He added, “The TalkNow solution was implemented swiftly and easily, without any problems and we immediately began to see the benefits. The costs of staff consultation have been cut by around 50 percent and the ability to analyse results with a single mouse click have had a significant impact on our ability to react to staff feedback.”

Emap Communications has found that the response rate to the surveys has increased from 48% to 71%. Staff are also more inclined to provide more candid answers - the ‘additional comments’ box is now being utilised by staff, in order to provide feedback outside the scope of the prescribed questions – something that wasn’t made use of by staff at all in the previous paper-based surveys.

The ability to analyse employee feedback more quickly has proved a benefit to both staff and management at Emap as it enables action plans to be implemented in approximately three days, instead of anywhere between the six weeks and two months it took previously. This allows problems to be dealt with immediately, which can help to lead to more contented staff.

Ken Smith talks of one example, “It is common knowledge that due to the economy opportunities for promotion aren’t as plentiful as they have been in the past. By taking note of comments that have been received from staff using TalkNow we have been able to respond by organising a range of career development workshops to address their concerns”.

“If issues like this aren’t dealt with immediately it can have a serious impact on the wellbeing of the staff and the organisation as a whole. Using TPMG’s TalkNow solution has allowed us to be more proactive in our HR activities rather than reacting to issues long after they have happened. In some cases the company may have been unaware of the full scope of these issues which may have impacted on our performance.”

Another benefit of using an online survey tool is that Emap Communications is inclined to undertake surveys on a more regular basis. This is due to the flexibility of the system and the unlimited capacity to dispatch surveys and collect data. In the past this had not been possible due to restrictions such as a lack of resource to distribute and analyse the surveys.

Using the web-based tool, ad hoc surveying can also be performed and alternative questions can be added to existing surveys in order to cater for a different business need as it arises. For example, target groups can be surveyed if a particular issue arises in a certain department or work area and sample groups can also be selected by job title, (such as editors or sub-editors).

Emap Communications has had favourable feedback to the web-based survey tool from staff, and it is widely agreed that the company will continue conducting staff surveys this way in the future. Staff have said that they find it easy to use, less disruptive, and they feel confident that their anonymity is being protected.

As well as the straightforward implementation and usage of web-based survey solutions, data analysis is another area which has been improved by TalkNow. Ken Smith explains, “We have a good relationship with the consultants at TPMG and they have been able to assist us with a great deal of the analysis functionality of the tool so that we are confident that we can use it to its full potential. We are able to analyse and drill down into the data received from the surveys in numerous ways, which provides us with a greater amount of flexibility and ensures that individual staff views are being noted and responded to.”

“The success of web-based staff surveys has restored my faith in electronic HR and we are even taking things a step further by piloting TPMG’s 360 degree feedback tool, orbit360. We hope to roll this out to management across Emap Communications in the very near future.”

Ends